RED ALERT! This interview incorporates spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 episode 8, “Under the Cloak of War,” accessible for streaming now on Paramount+. If you haven’t had an opportunity to look at the episode but and want to stay unspoiled, beam out now!
In “Under the Cloak of War,” Doctor Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) is unexpectedly confronted by a face from his beforehand unexplored previous in the Klingon War. The episode was written by Davy Perez (SNW season 1’s “Memento Mori”) and directed by Jeff W. Byrd.
The Beat leaped at the likelihood to talk with Byrd over Zoom about directing the compelling and sophisticated episode of SNW. We requested Byrd all about his private historical past with Trek, how his earlier expertise directing an episode of Star Trek: Discovery in contrast with directing “Under the Cloak of War,” and came upon about the making of that heart-stopping flashback triage scene!
The interview has been edited for readability and size.
AVERY KAPLAN: Can you inform us about your private historical past with Star Trek?
JEFF W. BYRD: My private historical past with Star Trek goes again to once I was slightly child, watching the OG model again in the day. My mother and pa would have us watch Star Trek. And one of the major causes we’d watch Star Trek was as a result of Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) was on it. The solely Black actress on a tv present at the time.
We would all collect round the tv set and activate the TV and watch and hope it was an Uhura episode. And when it was, we’d be like, “Yay!” And when it wasn’t, we’d nonetheless watch it. And all of us acquired caught up in the world of Star Trek.
Flashing ahead, as a grown-up human directing an episode of Star Trek: Discovery. And now doing SNW. So life couldn’t be extra full and full circle for me.
KAPLAN: Given your private historical past with Uhura, what was it like to have the ability to direct scenes with the character?
BYRD: Oh my god, it was unimaginable. The magnificence of it’s, working with everybody was nice, however I cherished the incontrovertible fact that M’Benga had the episode – M’Benga and Chapel (Jess Bush). And clearly, we had Mr. Bobby Wisdom coming in to play Dak’Rah.
And I used to be in a position to additionally work with Celia Rose Gooding and work with Uhura, which was wonderful. I instructed her that, too: “You know, when I was a kid…” And she stated, “Oh my god Jeff, that’s so sweet.” So that was nice, too. I used to be only a child in a sweet retailer day by day on that set.
KAPLAN: As you talked about, you’ve beforehand directed an episode of Discovery. I’m curious in case your expertise there knowledgeable your work on “Under the Cloak of War”?
BYRD: It variety of did, though, “Under the Cloak of War” is variety of the diametric reverse of “Rosetta,” my episode of Discovery, simply with regard to the nature of it.
I like each exhibits. But what I cherished about this episode was, actually we acquired right into a a lot darker place. It was a a lot darker episode of Star Trek. And it’s additionally a a lot darker model of Star Trek that we hardly ever, hardly ever see. I believe we’ve solely seen this model of Star Trek one time, in Star Trek Into Darkness, the place we came upon that there’s this black starship that they’ve that goes and does all these items.
But “Under the Cloak of War” was actually darkish. We acquired to see a Starfleet Black Ops staff that M’Benga was a component of. And they only went round killing of us, killing the dangerous individuals. “Okay, who is a bad person in the universe? We can’t make a deal, we can’t make any truce with them? Are you sure? Okay, well Official Starfleet, we’re going. And we don’t know whose being left behind, but we’re going.” And subsequent factor you recognize, that despot that was operating that planet is now gone. And we don’t understand how he died… however he died.
You can solely give it some thought late. Oh, M’Benga and his staff went in there and did some injury, took ‘em out. So it was good to know that, and I love that you get to see that in this episode because that shows that Starfleet, and Star Trek the show, has many different nuances to it. It’s not simply, “Oh, we go in peace, and we come in peace, and we’re going to figure out a way that we can do it with our brains, and hopefully we can out-think everybody.” But after we can’t… Bang bang bang, chop chop chop. At least we all know that that exists.
KAPLAN: What was your method to directing “Under the Cloak of War,” provided that distinctive tone?
BYRD: I actually needed to immerse myself in the world of PTSD, and the way it impacts an individual. Like I stated earlier than, when kill individuals, and your mission is to kill the dangerous particular person for the universe, the dangerous particular person for the world… Somebody, sadly, has to try this. And when that occurs, how does that have an effect on that human?
So much of us, we don’t give it some thought. We don’t take into consideration the SEAL Team Six who needed to kill Bin Laden. How are they affected once they go house? They actually extinguished a life.
So for this episode, I actually did rather a lot of analysis with regard to PTSD, with regard to battle, individuals coming house from battle; Afghanistan, Iraq. What occurs once they come house, how do they conduct themselves with their household; how do they conduct themselves with their pals? How do they conduct life once more?
That knowledgeable how I needed to direct this episode, and the way I needed this episode to really feel. I would like it to really feel like each second was intense and tension-filled. From the second this man acquired on the ship, to, clearly, when he left – which was in a physique bag.
And additionally, the way it affected Nurse Chapel and M’Benga of their minds. Because at the finish of the day, solely the two of them actually know what occurred on that frosted glass.
KAPLAN: Aside from flashbacks, this episode came about solely on the Enterprise. What directorial challenges and/or alternatives did this afford you?
BYRD: Shooting on the Enterprise… first of all, capturing on these units is wonderful. And I used to be in a position to do some actually fascinating issues inside the set of the Enterprise.
But then additionally, sure scenes that have been on the Volume that we shot, some of the battle stuff… It actually lent itself to discover what open-heart surgical procedure is like. We had a marketing consultant there on set who was speaking us by how coronary heart therapeutic massage is finished and walked Jess by it. She really put her fingers on our prosthetic coronary heart that we had that basically regarded like an actual coronary heart. And she needed to squeeze it, and fluid moved by it… I put my fingers in there to really feel it; it felt disgusting, I don’t wish to contact it anymore. She needed to contact all of it day. I didn’t wish to do this…
And all the faux blood that was in every single place, all of the wounds. It was all faux, however in the second on that day, it regarded completely actual. I applaud the manufacturing designer and the particular results and all the of us in there that do their job for all the Treks, they do it so extraordinarily effectively. And this episode, we went in there making a battle episode, a battle episode, and in addition a triage episode. “This person can’t live, the wounds are too extensive.” And you see the wounds. You see why they needed to say, “You know what? Put this person in the transporter buffer, we can’t do anything for this person.”
So as nice because it was to work on the Enterprise and actually discover these units, it was actually nice to be in the Volume and have our triage/hospital set actually be one of our main setpieces. And we had the nice Clint Howard on there, whose additionally Star Trek royalty, from OG back-in-the-day Star Trek. I like Clint.
KAPLAN: Did you could have any significantly memorable experiences on set?
BYRD: Yeah, undoubtedly. I imply, day by day was memorable for me. The one, specifically, was the coronary heart. But additionally, every time we’d present the panic assaults – Babs got here up with that tapping movement that basically expressed when he was having a panic assault. He defined to me, the idea of making a beat that was reverse to the means that his coronary heart was beating and the means his adrenaline flowing, after which having his coronary heart mimic that beat. That means, he introduced his coronary heart price down.
That was one thing he discovered from speaking to PTSD of us. And speaking to the those that take care of individuals with PTSD, and attempt to train them find out how to have instruments to regain management again once they have a second once they’re having a flashback.
And that was actually particular to me, and it stayed with me in order that every time I’ve a high-stress second, I generally tend to faucet someplace on my physique. Whether it’s a leg or my different hand, or a shoulder… You can undoubtedly begin to decrease your coronary heart price simply in time with the means that your fingers are hitting your shoulder.
So that stayed with me, and it’s nonetheless with me now. So I intend to make use of it now for the relaxation of my life, simply because it’s such an excellent instrument.
New episodes of Strange New Worlds are launched on Thursdays on Paramount+.
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